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"I've got three friends coming into town this weekend and you're going to f--- them," goes a routine anecdote about Mark and a porn girl. "No, I'm not," says the porn girl. "Then I'll have you beat up," says Mark. The girl gives in. Tiring of this treatment, she soon joins a growing number of persons who flee the biz to get away from Mark. According to stories circulating in the biz, some persons who've refused Mark's requests have been severely beaten; others, such as his former executive Perry Ross (married to Angela Barron) who officially died of a drug overdose (heroin needle stuck in his ass), murdered. Mark's brother Brad committed suicide under suspicious circumstances (perhaps murdered), on June 13, 1991. During 1998, Mark Carriere lost a $5 million dollar lawsuit to Dutch Jew Sydney Niekirk of Cal Vista. Born in 1949, Carriere grew up in Merrillville, Indiana. He entered porn in the early '80s with his younger brother Brad, born around 1954, who became his treasurer. Debuting at approximately the same time as high-end producer Vivid Video, the Carrieres flooded the market with cheap videos. "I'm always looking to cut corners, to cut people out of the picture," Mark told the 2/17/91 Los Angeles Times. He said his sales figures rose from $3 million a year in mid decade to $30 million in 1990. Like Russ Hampshire who owns the largest production company, VCA, Mark keeps numerous security monitors in his office to keep an eye on his employees. The soft-spoken shaggy-haired porn newcomer profited from the talents of veteran Ron Jeremy. "I was the king of killer and filler," remembers Jeremy, "all these techniques of hiring that one girl who's on the boxcover and shooting her for two or three scenes and then make two or three movies using her. The next day we'd shoot the filler - the girls who were less expensive, and then we'd have three movies. It was a conveyor belt style of moviemaking." Ron and Mark didn't invent the one-day wonder, but as far as profits were concerned, they perfected the medium. In 1980 porn videotapes sold for $100. By 1990, many tapes sold for five dollars. Carriere may not have caused the plunge, but he probably made more money from it more than anyone. Unable to compete, veteran producers Caballero and Western Visuals experienced severe cash flow problems and went months without paying their bills. They never recovered. Mark's enthusiasm for plastic surgery for his porn girls led the genre's shift from the Golden Age. Through the early 1980s sex performers generally appeared real. "Girls that Mark built," is how an aide refers to the women Mark ships off to plastic surgeons to reshape for maximum erotic appeal. Common changes included breast additions and nose reductions. Mark's love of "perfecting" femininity extends to his love life. Before picking up a date, he sent his makeup man ahead to prepare her. Around 1987, Carriere married performer Tina Marie, forcing her retirement from porn. They lasted several years before divorcing. "All women are whores and sluts," says Mark. In 1987, Indiana's largest porn distributor before Carriere, Burton H. Gorelick, pled guilty to federal racketeering, conspiracy and tax fraud charges. He received a five-year prison sentence for such crimes as skimming at least $560,000 from X-rated drive-in theaters he operated in Indiana and Ohio. In October 1989, federal agents seized almost $600,000 kept in safes on the premises of Carriere's company Multi-Media Distributing in his hometown Merrillville, Indiana. In 1991, Mark and his brother Brad were convicted of cheating on their taxes. They'd kept millions of dollars in cash and two sets of books. The phony one they presented to the IRS. Following the 1986 Meese Commission, federal agents traveled to the Bible Belt to seek obscenity convictions against California pornographers like Carriere. The definition of obscenity since the Supreme Court's 1973 Miller ruling has been whether the average person, applying the standards of his community, finds the work lacks serious value and appeals to prurient interests. Rural areas tend to have more conservative values than urban ones. The feds eventually convicted 20 pornographers, sending many to jail, and collecting millions of dollars in fines. "It's a holocaust," porn attorney John Weston told the LA Times. He accused the government of seeking to destroy "an entire genre" of entertainment. In September 1991, a federal grand jury in Oxford, MS, indicted the owner of Vivid Video, Steven Hirsch, for Interstate Transportation of Obscenity and conspiracy to avoid taxes. In a plea bargain, Vivid forfeited $500,000 to the government, and toned down their product. In late 1991, Russell James Hampshire, along with his company VCA and his employees Nolan Quan and Don Diekman were charged with Interstate Transportation of Obscenity. In a plea bargain, Russ served a year in jail and his company forfeited two million dollars. In 1992, Carriere and his company agreed to pay $3.5 million in his fines, which his lawyer called a record, after an obscenity conviction in Tallahassee, Florida. At the same time, the government went after Phil Harvey's Adam & Eve company, porn's largest mail-order business. But instead of copping a plea like his peers, Phil fought back and won. As federal and local prosecutors devastated his competition, Harvey moved into the world of softcore cable TV. "The legal battles facing Curtis and others are just the latest problems to beset the porn business," wrote the 2/17/91 LA Times. "After a period of 'porn chic' in the early '70s, when hip couples went to X-rated theaters to see The Devil In Miss Jones the way New York dilettantes used to go to the Cotton Club in Harlem, pornography has lost its eclat. Twenty years after Deep Throat helped bring the grimy sex film out of the closet, it is no longer cool to be seen waiting in line with the raincoat crowd at an X-rated theater. Feminist critiques of the way women are portrayed have led to picketing of video stores, and the arrival of AIDS has sent a wave of fear through…'The Playpen of the Damned.'" Mark Carriere - his real name - owned Video Exclusives before shutting it down and starting up Leisure Time which he values at $60 million. He's trying to sell it for $30 million but no one wants to pay that money for a porn business. Mark made his money by turning out one day wonders and compilation tapes. He owns about half of the industry's library tape. Carriere directed numerous flicks in the '80s under the name Mark Curtis. Hollywood Heartbreakers: "Lovely to look at. The women are beautiful, much of the scenery is plush and elegant, or inventive and surreal. The filmmakers have gone to extravagant lengths to deliver a series of vignettes so visually arresting and charged that the story line becomes unimportant." (AFW) Lovers Girls: "Playful and hot, a party provides the backdrop for a simple but sexy setup for an attractive group of revelers. The camera work is gorgeous and everyone looks sensational. Great bodies, sensuous music, good images, great direction and light humor..." (AFW 7/87) Mark cut scripts and prices in the '80s, forcing the competition to follow but no one could turn out sexvids as profitably as him. "My mother used to tell me: All women are whores and sluts," says Mark. "She was right." For several years, Mark was married to ex-porn star Tina Marie, forcing her retirement from performing. Since their divorce, Mark's returned to his flamboyant lifestyle. For the first time since 1990, Mark doesn't have criminal charges hanging over his head. In February 1996 a federal judge sentenced Carriere to three years probation, 2400 hours of community service and a fine of $850,000 for interstate transportation of obscene material. Carriere also agreed to donate $250,000 to three children's charities. The distribution of the following videotapes got him in trouble: Girls Who Suck Cock And Eat Cum, Bisexual Lovers, Double-f---ed Women and Shaved. Charges were dismissed against Three Guy Ass Attack, Best of All-Male Cum, Anal Den, Girls Who Suck Black Cock... Community standards vary in their definitions of obscenity. Federal agents out to get pornographers go to conservative locations in the country and phone and write in orders for explicit tapes that the Feds think a jury will find obscene. Carriere avoided jail time by supposedly squealing to the feds about veteran New York pornographer Ted Rothstein. Al Goldstein broke the news in an editorial in his Screw Magazine, 7/15/96. "He [Carriere] caved in to [that] pressure and delivered to the FBI a true prize: Teddy Rothstein, a pivotal figure in the distribution of adult material nationwide." Rothstein's attorney, Paul Cambria of Buffalo, says that the testimony Carriere gave the government was untrue. "He made up things about Teddy Rothstein so he could escape going to jail." Mark denies the above charges. "Mark Carriere always took care of me," said Ron Jeremy in June 1996. "That's why when I had the Bobbitt movie, I turned it over to Mark. It was my film and I could have gone anywhere with it. But Mark was the most loyal back. He allowed me to take a part in it, to direct it. We went on Howard Stern, Geraldo and Jerry Springer. Mark paid for all the airfare for the girls and I. Mark showed a wallet and we did it classy. We got a lot of press and that helped it become the largest selling tape of all-time. "If I had given it to Vivid and VCA, and these are nice guys, but they would've given me a $10,000 finders fee and told me to get lost. "I gave it to the man who stuck by me for ten years and put the most money in my account, who paid my legal fees when I was busted working for him... We had a relationship. He's a friend. When the sequel came along [Frankenpenis], he gave it to me. Divine Brown [the hooker who blew British actor Tony Grant on Sunset Boulevard] came to me. "I had this poem I wrote for Mark and he loved it. [LT equals Leisure Time.]
"Mark [Carriere] is the richest person in the business," Ron Jeremy says. "That gives people reason to hate you. I feel good that I've backed the right horse. "Mark gets busted all the time because when you're that big in mail-order, you get busted all the time. The Feds tried to get me to testify against him, but I wouldn't. "Mark is a nice guy but he hires tough guys as front people. Two editors tried to blackmail him, and so rumor has it that he sent a couple of black guys working for him in the labs to threaten them. They didn't hit them but pushed them around and scared them. Mark's got the money and the power to do things like that, but he's only done it once that I've heard of. "There are rumors about Perry Ross [who supposedly died in Amsterdam of a drug overdose. Perry worked for Mark]. I wouldn't like to think that Mark's so mean or rotten a human being to actually hurt someone. "He's a pleasant guy. He'll probably marry a beautiful intelligent Playboy playmate. I may be the Best Man. Everyone who knows him says that he's a nice guy. I would not want to go into business against him. I would not want to compete with him and his staff of lawyers. Fortunately, I'm on the right side of him. You don't want to cross him. "Mark and Tina Marie had an amicable divorce. She didn't want to be a cut-throat and he wanted her to live comfortably. Recently, however, they've had some problems because of things she said and so he's cut off communication." RAME moderator Brad Williams got burned one evening by Mark's product. "After picking out a couple of good Private flicks, I looked for a third freebie. Finding a "new, full-length feature" from a company called TVK Entertainment starring Ashlyn Gere and Victoria Paris made in late 1996 seemed like a decent gamble. Oops! "TVK Entertainment equals Leisure Time. They got me. This is a four-scene compilation tape with dull scenes that have no connection to each other... No matter how much I try to avoid scam artists like Leisure Time, they will sneak one over on you if you go by the boxcover... f--- them. It makes me happy that Mark Carriere, president of Leisure Time, got hit with a multi-million dollar fine...for distributing "obscenity"." Carriere keeps one huge section of his warehouse space for his gym equipment. "He's really into body sculpting," says a source. "And after work, if you wanted to, you could hang around and work out. But nobody ever did... "Mark comes across as one of the nicest guys in the world, which is strange considering how many of his workers portray him as a tyranical asshole. But when his groupies came into the workout room with him, it got tense. Like being in an Italian restaurant when the mob walks in. You finish up what you're doing and then get out of there. "We saw a lot of porn girls come in [to Mark's office]. What is she doing here? Don't ask. The less you know, the better. [They were sexually servicing Mark to get work.] "Mark supposedly had plastic pectoral implants. He looks like Robocop, about 70% plastic beneath his skin. "When Mimi Miyagi went in there, the first thing she heard was, you need to get your tits redone. I didn't think I needed that. Yeah, you do. Mark's into plastic people. "In the Leisure Time office, unless you went into the back where they put tapes together, or into the screening room, you could walk through there and not have an idea at all that it is a porno company. A lot of grandmother types worked there. When we weren't shooting, there weren't porn people around there. "Mark has a lot of money but he is still really cheap about things. He used to send one of his lackeys to his house because in his rich neighborhood you had to pay about $60 a month for garbage service. Instead, he had one of his lackeys come to the house, gather up all the trash and bring it down to his dump bins at Leisure Time. "The database at Leisure Time maximizes the usage of every scene. Once we'd saturated the market with that scene, Mark would grudgingly go out and buy new product or hire Ron Jeremy or Brad Gunches to shoot 10-12 scenes that he would build whole movies around. He'd take two new scenes and three old scenes, and make a new movie. "Brad Gunches' sister, Kathy Green, is a department head at Leisure Time. Brad was not welcomed back at Leisure Time and for a while Los Angeles was off limits to him. A Pulp Fiction scenario where you've lost your privilege to be in Los Angeles. Brad was in Las Vegas for a while, and Mark knew where he was at. But even though Brad f---ed Mark over, Mark did not do anything about it as long as Brad stayed out there. "Brad ripped Mark off for money and video equipment to pay about $5-$10,000 of gambling debts. Brad is a horribly compulsive gambler." A porn source tells Luke: "Tina Marie's brother John Stallion used to hang out at mobster Joe Isgro`s office. Tina Marie met mob guys like Rocky at POLO Lounge and wanted them to hurt her ex-husband Mark Carriere, owner of Leisure Time. Joe Isgro is Gambino Family MEMBER and Record guy Payola and Shylock. He is in the book Hit Men by Fredric Dannen. He was under Joe Piney and met with John Gotti. "Tina Marie's brother John Stallion organized the big Pornathon in 1989 for Mark Carriere. They shot about 60 porn movies in 30 days and all the talent got bad checks. It was organized by John, and Ben Silver the Israeli and Jerry Zimmerman. All the organizers got new cars. Carriere got all the masters and all the model releases and none of the talent got paid a dime. "The late Jerry Zimmerman was a tremendous con man, close to Sonny Franzese and his Sonny's son Michael. Michael stole $300 million. They made a breakdancing movie "Knights of the City," starring Sammy Davis Jr and Janet Jackson. And they made another movie starring Linda Blair, Mausoleum. "Then Jerry Zimmerman and John Stallion brought the Russian circus over (The Great Circus Bim Bom) in 1990. And it ran out of money in Missouri because Jerry and John stole all the money. The animals were starving. It was on 60 Minutes. They had to feed these Russian people and send them home. The circus had been around 100 years and they bankrupted it in two months." "Mark Carriere's guy John Stallion carried a gun," says a porn source, "but he too was all talk." Beginning July 7, 1987, John Stallion's production company Stallion Films shot continuously for four weeks (47 films) at 306 Loma Drive in Los Angeles. Writes the Los Angeles Times 12/23/89: "When a film executive asked the Los Angeles YWCA last summer if his company could use the association's stately Clark Residence downtown for a production, YWCA officials gave the go-ahead, under the impression that it was for a documentary with Elizabeth Taylor. Instead, the four-story building was used to film a "pornathon" of adult videos that has embarrassed the YWCA. "Sgt. Donald Smith of the Police Department's administrative vice division said the losses may add up to $320,000. Yeehorn Shuai, an attorney for Trans Pacific Marketing, an Orange County videotape and cassette company, said his firm filed suit last month in Orange County Superior Court against Stallion Productions and Laolagi. The suit asks for $894,000 in damages for fraud, alleging that Laolagi failed to pay for tape he ordered." (Los Angeles Times, 12/23/89) The LA Times says cast and crew members lived at the stie around the clock during filming. Armed guards were stationed around the building to keep performers in. "Laolagi agreed, saying he feared that if the performers left the building during shooting, they might not return, jeopardizing completion of the video. Performers were allowed to leave on weekends, he said." (LA Times) Laolagi told the LA Times there was no intent to defraud anyone, adding that production costs simply spiraled out of control. LA Times 11/21/90 The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the indictment stems from an investigation that began in August, 1989, after the IRS was told that Carriere was involved in skimming "large sums of cash" from his mail-order distributing company, Multi-Media Distributing Co. Inc. of Gary, Ind. The indictment states that two sets of financial records were kept, one to keep track of incoming money and the other to prepare tax returns for 1986 though 1988. For the three-year period, Carriere declared an income of $2.96 million and paid taxes of $905,958. The IRS charges that Carriere's taxable income in those years was "substantially in excess" of the amount claimed. According to the indictment, mail-room employees separated cash from checks and money orders that were sent in by customers. The mail-room supervisor did not turn the cash over to the bookkeeper for deposit but, instead, stored it in safes located around the business, according to the government. In October, 1989, the IRS raided the Indiana plant and took away four safes containing $548,409.15, according to the Department of Justice. In 1983, when Carriere moved to California from Indiana, he said he was doing $3 million a year in sales. That had increased to $30 million earlier this year, he said. His tax records, provided by the Department of Justice, show how his business prospered in the late 1980s. In 1986, Carriere declared taxable income of $108,502. Two years later, he reported income of $2,086,243. Video Exclusives invested in a 7,500-square-foot sound stage in the San Fernando Valley with eight sets, the biggest in the pornography trade, and produced up to 70 movies a year, Carriere said in an interview several months ago. Jeremy Stone, an editor at Adam Film World, an industry publication, said Carriere was "probably doing better than anybody else in the industry has ever done." Carriere watched every phase of his operation on 10 video monitors in a large office furnished with a bubbling fish tank and littered with stacks of X-rated tape boxes. Carriere once joked that he planned to put nameplates of competing companies he intended to absorb over the doors in his office. LA Times 8/23/91 One of the San Fernando Valley's most financially successful sex-film makers has pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion in connection with a scheme to skim money from his Indiana mail-order video business. Mark Carriere, also known as Mark Curtis, 36, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana to filing a false tax return for 1987, when he said his income was $767,687. As part of a plea bargain, Carriere admitted that his income was "substantially greater than that." In 1989, federal agents raided the Indiana mail-order business, Multi-Media Distributing Co., and seized four safes containing more than $548,000 in cash. Carriere started his mail-order company in 1980. He later moved to the San Fernando Valley and opened Video Exclusives, a company that made X-rated videos for his mail-order house. Carriere developed a reputation as the Mack Sennett of adult entertainment, churning out dozens of low-budget features every year. He opened a 7,500-square-foot sound stage in a West Valley warehouse to produce nothing but adult videos. While the rest of the industry fell on hard financial times because of a glut of videos on the market, Carriere, in an interview last year, said his sales figures rose from $3 million less than a decade ago to $30 million in 1990. He amassed a collection of exotic cars, including a Bentley, a Porsche Carrera, a classic Corvette and a Ferrari Testarossa. Carriere came to the attention of the government in 1989, according to the indictment, when the IRS was told that Carriere and his brother, Brad, who later committed suicide, "were involved in skimming large sums of cash from the business" in Indiana. According to government prosecutors, two sets of books were kept. The indictment said cash sent in by customers ordering tapes was separated from checks and money orders. The cash was then placed in four safes at Multi-Media and not reported to the government. In October, 1989, federal agents raided the business and hauled away those safes, with the more than $500,000 inside. LA Times 10/10/91 Mel Slavick may be out the $2,500 he hoped to win in court Tuesday. But he has recovered at least that much in free publicity since his Buena Park special-effects firm was accused of delivering shoddily made, fake giant breasts. Slavick's Creative Effects Studios agreed in February to design a set of 90-inch-bustline breasts for Mark Curtis Productions, a Chatsworth adult-video company that planned to use the props in a movie. When the video maker complained that the 50-pound pair of foam-rubber falsies were "unrealistic," Slavick tried again. But the video company's owner, Mark Carriere, proved to be a finicky customer -- deeming Slavick's second attempt "scaly and Godzilla-like." On Tuesday, the case was put to rest by Lewis Kent, a pro tem judge in Van Nuys Small Claims Court. He decided to award neither side any money, citing the men's lack of an explicit contract. "I want to tell you how appalled I am by the business you are in and my disdain that you are taking up the court's time with this matter," Lewis chastised the litigants. .... Carriere was married to porn star Tina Marie who used the Social Security Number 340-66-XXXX issued in Illinois between 1978 and 1980. This same number was issued to DAUGINTIS, PETRAS, and a Death Claim for this ssn was filed in JAN 1995. Lev Bronstein writes: 1. Who is Frank Buchanan, and why did he take Carriere to small claims court? 2. What's with all of the state court tax liens? Did Carriere forget to pay his taxes? 3. Apparently Carriere files a lot of UCC (uniform commercial code) liens. UCC liens are filed with the state to secure debts. It's sort of like filing liens on real property with the county recorder's office, except it is done at Sacramento. Is Carriere filing liens against his own company? Why? Is he lending his own personal funds to these companies, and taking a lien? After I sent the e-mail to you, I was trying to figure out why a person would put UCC liens on his own company. The only reason I could think of is to try to ace out other creditors. Example. Carriere puts the UCC lien on Leisure Time for $100,000. Company X later extends Leisure Time credit. If Leisure Time goes under, with debts greater than its assets. Carriere can then say Leisure Time owes him money, he has a lien on its assets, and he gets a first crack at Leisure Time's assets for the $100,000, leaving the other business creditors holding worthless paper. The only other reason I can think of to put a lien on my own company is if it is not entirely my company, and he is making legitimate loans to a company that is not entirely his. Or maybe there's some wierd tax reason he's doing this. Bob writes: "Carriere's filing of UCC liens should be in consideration of loaning money to his company and yes it can be valid if there is Debt on the companies books related to HIM loaning his company capital. The only problem with the scam scenario involving his priority secured position as to repayment....well, I cannot think of anyone but bent noses NOT getting a letter of subrogation from the UCC lienholder Carriere as to ANY subsequent loans made to the company. IN OTHER WORDS, nobody would(should) lend him ANY money without him taking a backseat (2ND in line as to the assets of the company) to them. The rest of the file concerning local tax payments that have not been made are just that. Probably, property tax, sales tax etc." Here's a background report on Carriere: MARK CARRIERE DOB: MAR 1955 SSN 303-XX-XXXX issued in Indiana between 1969 and 1970 Possible Addresses Associated with Subject Possible Deed Transfers California Deed Transfer Records - County of: RIVERSIDE
Possible UCC Lien Filings Original Date : 04/14/1997 Original Date : 06/10/1998 Original Date : 06/09/1997 Original Date : 06/17/1998 Possible Liens, Judgments and Bankruptcies Court Location: SACRAMENTO COUNTY COURT Court Location: SACRAMENTO COUNTY COURT (RD) Court Location: SACRAMENTO COUNTY COURT Court Location: LAKE CIRCUIT COURT Court Location: LAKE CIRCUIT COURT Court Location: LAKE CIRCUIT COURT Court Location: LAKE CIRCUIT COURT
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